CSR's UniFi Powers The Canary Wireless Wi-Fi 'Hotspotter'

Cambridge, UK - CSR recently announced that its UniFi Wi-Fi technology has been selected by Canary Wireless for its second generation Digital Hotspotter, the HS20. Building on the success of the highly popular HS10 model, the HS20 is able to detect an even wider range of Wi-Fi signals and network properties. The compact, efficient design of CSR's UniFi single-chip Wi-Fi has allowed Canary Wireless to create a device that is attractive, efficient, responsive and highly versatile.

For OEMs looking to integrate Wi-Fi functionality into mobile devices CSR's UniFi is the ideal solution. UniFi has extremely low power consumption, using an average of just 10mW. Easy to integrate, UniFi's 88-ball chip scale package (CSP) measures just 5.8mm x 6.4mm and has excellent radio coexistence, while dual RISC microcontrollers and quadruple QoS packet queues reduce the load on the host processor.

The HS20 is able to detect 802.11 b, g and n, scans on 14 channels and can display information on up to 20 wireless networks without interference from Bluetooth signals, cordless phone signals, etc. By pushing a ‘scan' button the HS20 will gather the ID (SSID) and signal strength of all networks around it. The HS20 can even display information on the encryption status of a Wi-Fi network; open or secure, WEP, WPA or WPA2.

Steve Deutscher, President, Canary Wireless commented, "CSR's UniFi proved a perfect match for our design needs. The HS20 called for a compact, low power WLAN chip with a simple-to-use API. Based on these requirements we picked CSR's UniFi solution to provide the WLAN capability. With UniFi we have been able to make the HS20 slimline and powerful, yet with a battery life of about three months from two ordinary AAA batteries."

"We're pleased to work with Canary Wireless on this initial product", said Raj Gawera, Head of Marketing for CSR's Wi-Fi Strategic Business Unit. "Canary operates a nimble and aggressive product development strategy so we quickly developed a good working relationship. UniFi fitted well with Canary's needs as CSR designed UniFi to ensure minimal time-to-market, taking as much hassle away from the OEM as possible. The HS20 can be used to assess network security, range and functionality, and as a handy device for quickly finding hotspots when out and about."

SOURCE: CSR plc